By Sophie Horn
From Monday the 16th to Friday the 20th of June, I had the privilege of being able to work with MCH London for my work experience week. Whilst experiencing what it’s like to work in an advertising agency environment and gain a beneficial understanding of how design and advertising concepts work behind the scenes, it also helped me to get a better comprehension of what path I would like to pursue in the future. Throughout the week, I shadowed several meetings with clients ranging in locations from London to Swindon whilst working on my own briefs surrounding design/graphics to fully integrate my experience with MCH.
Starting with Monday, I began in the office with Mark and the team who introduced me to graphic work surrounding the ‘Best Mates’ charity. I experimented with platforms including Unsplash and Canva to design my own social media images with a text overlay displaying the core values of the charity. I thoroughly enjoyed creating these as I learnt a lot about the various procedures involved with editing and graphic design, whilst at the same time recognising the importance of having an appealing brand image to customers. Later in the afternoon, I also shadowed a meeting with CWA Finance and gained an understanding of the process and benefits behind advertising/posting a client’s business.
On Tuesday, the team and I began at the Institute of Directors where I carried on working on the ‘Best Mates’ design images, primarily working on text placement and selecting the most appropriate colours to use. Once these were completed, I went with Mark to shadow a business meeting with a client, witnessing the process behind how two companies work together. Following this, Mark and I travelled to Swindon to attend another business meeting with Carl McCulloch (director of TRAK Employment Solutions), to discuss matters in his business regarding advertising and paid media.This business meeting was very informative in understanding MCH’s role to ensure TRAKs advancement in the advertising industry, and to influence their success overall as a business. Also within this meeting, I had the opportunity to present the work I had done for ’Best Mates’ to Carl (who is also the CEO/Co-Founder of ‘Best Mates’) and gain feedback about understanding the message that ‘Best Mates’ aspires to display. This was useful in comprehending the importance of consideration when choosing ways to advertise that align with the business’s value proposition.
Continuing to Wednesday, I worked remotely and began the day on a call with Emilie giving me a brief to work on. This involved the process of creating a Linktree for the company PPS to develop my skills in graphic design and to understand the significance of brand guidelines. I started this process by watching guides on creating a linktree, followed by inserting the necessary links and giving them a title that was suitable to their function. Thirdly, I focused on designing the Linktree and utilising complementary colours that largely suit their brand. I was quite pleased with the final product that I managed to produce, alongside the fact that I enjoyed this brief because of the graphic design aspect that came with it.
After gaining positive feedback on the first brief from Emilie, I was given a second brief on Thursday for CWA Finance. This brief, corresponding to the first, was to create a link tree for CWA using their signature colours from their brand guidelines and choosing appropriate URLs to include. I found this brief easier to complete considering I knew the process and was familiar with the design tools, but I still enjoyed it very much as it greatly influenced my love for graphic design and helped me become more familiar with the route I would like to take in the future.
Back at the office on Friday morning, I gained more feedback from my briefs that helped me make any necessary amendments to my work, mainly improvements around order and layout, which strengthened my understanding of the requirements needed to appeal to the customer. Finally, to conclude my work experience week, I wrote up my experience with MCH, which I have really enjoyed with an amazing team and I very much appreciate the benefits it has given me based on decisions for my future and the skills I have acquired.
